


Winterfell at Night

by asongforjonsa



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, jonsa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-31 22:44:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12142731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asongforjonsa/pseuds/asongforjonsa
Summary: Jon arrives in the middle of the war carrying a bundle





	Winterfell at Night

“My Lady! My Lady, I’m sorry to wake you,” Brienne called out as she knocked on Sansa’s door. The Lady of Winterfell sighed. She’d been sleeping soundly for the first time in probably months, what could possibly cause her knight to wake her? 

“Come in, Brienne,” Sansa rasped. 

“My Lady, there are two riders approaching the gate. Do you want us to let them in?” 

Sansa got out of bed quickly, throwing on her robe and cloak. “It wouldn’t be wights, they don’t ride horses. Let them in, I’ll wait downstairs.” Arya had noticed the commotion, and joined her sister in the entrance to the keep as they waited. 

Sansa could’ve sworn she heard men saying “It’s Lord Jon!” but she didn’t want to let herself believe that, not until she saw him…

Jon burst through the doors, covered in snow and ice, carrying a bundle wrapped in what looked like at least ten furs. Ser Davos stood behind him, shivering from head to toe.

“Jon!” Sansa exclaimed. “Sansa,” he moaned, walking towards her.

“Sansa, please, help me. Daenerys died, I rode here so fast I almost killed my horse. You have to help me save her.” Jon pressed the bundle into her arms. 

“Save who?!” Sansa asked. Jon unwrapped the top of the bundle and revealed the tiniest baby Sansa had ever seen. 

“Our daughter, Rhaella. Sansa, please, you have to help me.” Sansa stared at the baby silently for a moment. The baby opened her eyes slightly, and started screaming at the top of her lungs. 

“Arya, find Brienne, find as many people as you can, and go to Wintertown," Sansa commanded. "There has to be at least one nursing mother there. Hurry! Come with a couple if possible, tell them they will stay in the Keep with us until the war is over, with their families.” Arya raced out the door. 

She turned to her handmaid. “Arella, see Ser Davos to a bath.” 

Sansa unwrapped the baby from the rest of the bundle. She had the tiniest little wisps of silver hair and shriveled up pink skin, but her grip was strong. She grabbed Sansa’s finger and held on tight. Sansa cooed at her, trying to soothe her screams. 

Jon stumbled towards a chair, and Sansa sprang back into action, yelling for servants. “Get Lord Jon out of these wet clothes and into a bath, use my chambers, and bring me some dry cloths immediately.” 

Sansa hurried up the stairs with Rhaella, and laid her on her bed. “It’s alright, sweetling, it’s alright,” she murmured as she dried the baby off. “I’ve got you now, little girl. You’ll be alright, I promise.” Sansa wrapped her up in cloth and a fur, and clutched her to her chest, wishing she could feed the poor babe now. 

Jon landed in Sansa’s tub with a thump, which startled the baby into screams again. She hurried over to make sure he didn’t drown, and noticed how bloodshot and puffy his eyes were. 

“Jon,” she whispered, “What happened?” She ran her free hand through his hair. 

“It was too soon, but Daenerys, she… the baby came too quickly. She lost so much blood, Sansa. We had a maester with us, but… there was nothing he could do. Daenerys legitimized the baby before… and she… she whispered the baby’s name to me before she died. I killed my mother, and my child killed hers… Oh gods!” Jon buried his face in his hands and leaned forward, causing some of the water to spill out of the tub. 

Sansa stroked his hair. She hated what Daenerys had done, how she’d appeared so triumphant when Jon announced his decision to wed her once the fighting ended. How she would rub her belly every time she saw Sansa, like she knew the pain it was causing her. 

Jon and Sansa clung to each other the night before the army left, promising to always love each other, even if from a distance, even if in secret. When they learned of Jon’s parentage, they’d confessed their love to one another in private, and made plans to wed. As they walked into the great hall, hand in hand, to announce their engagement, Daenerys arrived and pulled Jon aside to tell him of her pregnancy. Sansa spent the evening sobbing in Arya’s arms instead of in Jon’s.

Sansa’s eyes stung with tears as she remembered her own sorrow, but Rhaella’s screams reminded her that her feelings didn’t matter anymore.

“Take deep breaths, Jon, you have to breathe,” she soothed, stroking his hair. Rhaella whimpered, and Sansa could feel a fever on her tiny brow, likely from lack of nutrition. “Jon, has she eaten anything?” 

Jon nodded slowly. “The camp is only a day’s ride away, there was one… whore in the followers camp who had just given birth, and she helped, but I knew I had to get her back here.” 

Sansa sighed, and thought to herself, “A whore feeding the future queen of Westeros. What troubled times we live in, indeed.” 

Just then, Arya burst into the room with two women at her heels. Jon didn’t even move to cover himself; the events of the previous 48 hours had wrung him of every emotion and ability to move. 

“Sansa, this is Valla and Willa. Both of them just gave birth a moon ago, and they’re more than willing to feed baby…?” 

“Rhaella,” Jon whispered from the tub. “Her name is Rhaella.” 

Sansa stood, and handed her to Valla. “Thank you, Valla. You and your family are more than welcome within our walls. You as well, Willa.” Valla bowed her head, and set to feeding the baby right away. 

Sansa beckoned for Arya to come speak with her. “Have the servants prepare Jon’s old chambers, and have them bring some clothes of his, and bring a cradle into my room.” 

Arya raised an eyebrow at Sansa. “Don’t look at me like that, Jon isn’t capable of taking care of a baby in his state. I’ll take care of her until we figure something else out.” Arya nodded wordlessly. 

Sansa helped Jon out of the tub and into dry clothes, and led him to sit on her bed. When Valla finished feeding Rhaella, Sansa took her and burped her, and excused the new wet nurse.

Jon leaned up against the pillows on Sansa’s bed, watching his daughter. Sansa sat next to him, cradling Rhaella in her arms. 

Jon had been fighting tears since Daenerys died. He hadn’t fallen in love with her; he hated that she deprived him of loving Sansa, but she had been kind to him, more or less, and she was the mother of his daughter. He loved her for giving him Rhaella. This tiny thing, and he was all she had left. 

Sansa handed Rhaella to him, and he stared at her. He hadn’t really gotten the chance to look at her much; as soon as Daenerys died, it was a race to find someone to feed the baby, then a race to Winterfell. 

“Why didn’t you stay in the camp, Jon?” Sansa asked quietly. 

“She wasn’t safe there. The army is heading this way, to set up a perimeter around Winterfell, but she wouldn’t have survived. I knew you’d protect her.” Jon looked up at Sansa. Her eyes shone with tears, and she let out a quiet sob when Jon rested his head against her shoulder. 

Arya found them like that when she returned with servants carrying a cradle and rocking chair. She hadn’t held that many babies, but she gently lifted Rhaella out of Jon’s arms and settled her in the crib next to the bed. Jon opened his eyes slightly, but closed them as Arya reached out to rub his arm. She lifted the furs over her sister and cousin, and hurried out of the room. 

Sansa woke a few hours later with a start, sitting upright so quickly it made her head spin. Surely the events of the previous night had been a dream? 

She looked down, and saw Jon’s right hand in her left, and the cradle next to his side of the bed. “So, it wasn’t a dream,” she murmured. Gods, what were they going to do now?

**Author's Note:**

> Not entirely sure where I'm going with this lol!
> 
> asongforjonsa.tumblr.com


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